Posts Tagged ‘Birthday Party’
This weekend we celebrated Peyton and Preston’s 6th and 4th Birthdays. I had big plans for a fun outdoor party at the park~just what my P’s had asked for~ but late Friday night, a huge storm came through (complete with wind, rain, thunder and lightning~something very rare here in Southern California). Down to the last minute we were preparing to hold the party in our house, but thankfully the storm passed early enough and we were able to host the party at the park as planned. The kids had a blast and we are so lucky to have such great family and friends come to celebrate with us.
This year they were all about Super Heroes and Princesses~ so we came up with the theme “Capes and Castles”. This gave me SO many fun ideas for activities, snacks, games, and favors…
The invitations were made by Jazzy Caps . Her custom images are really affordable and her turnaround time is phenominal! They were exactly what I was looking for.
I’m generally not a fan of the typical loot bags and instead try to do something that goes with the theme and acts as part of the party itself. For this year’s Capes and Castles theme we passed out Super Hero Inital Capes for the Boys and Wands and Tiaras for the girls. I was able to order the capes and tiaras online and used yellow, red, and blue felt to make the badges for the back of them (I have to give a shout out to my husband who cut out all the yellow diamond shapes for me!). I also made the wands using plastic wand sticks, small flowers, and satin ribbon.
Refresments were simple; Pizza, Fruit, and Veggies. Per Peyton’s request we served Princess Punch (Pink Lemonade) and Super Hero Fuel (Fruit Punch), along with bottled water as our beverages.
A craft table was available for the kids to complete their ensembles. Beads for the Princess’ to make necklaces and foam masks for the Super Hero’s to decorate.
Our party game was “Pin the Tiara on Princess Peyton” and “Pin the Badge on Wunderkid”. I used poster board to trace the outline of the P’s. The Tiara was a stamp I found at Michael’s and the Badge was yellow card stock. The kids had a great time playing this classic party game with a twist!
A tree at the edge of the park was the perfect setting for our “Royal Ball”. We hung some pink paper flowers in the tree and set up a tub full of large colorful balls to play with.
The obstacle course ended up being less of a ‘course’ and more of a free for all. They all had a great time stacking our large “Bricks” (red and blue wrapped boxes) to break through the ‘wall’, scooting through the tunnel, and dancing through the hula hoops.
Thank you to ALL of our family and friends that were able to come celebrate with us. You really made this day special for my P’s!
***Looking for more Party ideas? Check out our Football/Cheerleader theme, Earthday Garden Party, and Easter Birthday Bash***
Okay, I know the P’s Birthday was in April but I figured this post is just in time for Football Season. If you have any Football/Cheerleader fans in the house you may want to read on 
P1 and P2 have Birthdays just weeks apart and after throwing a huge Easter Birthday Bash followed by an Earthday Birthday Party two weeks later last year, I decided to have a double birthday party for them this year. Being only two years apart they have most of the same friends anyway. The tricky part was coming up with a theme that they would both be happy with. We decided on a Football/Cheerleader theme and chose the color RED for their favorite team, the AZ Cardinals.
I outfitted P2 with a RED football Jersey from www.teamsportswear.com/ and had his name and age put on the back by a local screen printing shop. P1 got her very own RED Cheerleading uniform from www.cheerleading.com/.
The Balloon Arch was made by my Mom and I and really gave the party that Homecoming Football game feel.
I ordered the Football toss game pictured above and Party Favors from Oriental Trading Company. I loved the personalized megaphones that say “Happy Birthday Peyton and Preston.”
Each child took home a Megaphone, Pom pom, and a mini football (these I found at the Dollar Tree.)
I used extra megaphones, along with Pom poms we had here, as decorations throughout the house.
For entrtainment we had the Football Toss pictured above and I bought lots of outdoor toys like balls, jumpropes and hoolahoops. I covered the back patio table with white paper for the kids to color.
We had the sand box out filled with tiny treasures hidden in it.
The football pinata ( which I always try to fill with more trinkets than candy) was from Party City. And almost impossible to break!
The cake we ordered from Vons and was a simple Football Field design with their names on it.
And a youth football game isn’t complete without a Breakthrough, so before singing happy birthday and cutting the cake they all lined up and tore through the paper.
When the day was over I had two very tired and happy P’s. They LOVED their football birthday party.
My baby girl was born on April 22nd, Earth Day…this year she turned 4 and we thought it would be so much fun to plan a theme that would work well with what is to be celebrated on Earth Day! We decided that a ‘Garden’ party would be perfect, and to make it totally princess worthy we added some Butterflies! Well, one butterfly anyway:
Her birthday was on a Thursday so we scheduled the party for the following Saturday. On her actual birthday though, we made sure to celebrate in true Earth Day fashion. We started the day opening presents, of course, and then went on a trash pick-up, followed by a Nature Walk. I was so happy to see how much she enjoyed making sure we kept our sidewalks and grass areas clean and beautiful!
We ended up with 2 bags full of trash, and we didn’t go that far…I couldn’t believe how much stuff people just throw on the ground!
Down the street from our house is a wooded area that has a trail running though it…it’s perfect for us since this ‘city mama’ isn’t much of a nature girl. My idea of being ‘outdoorsy’ is a day at the beach The kids got to explore a little and I didn’t have to venture too far!
The P’s got to see a caterpillar, butterfly, birds, squirrels, a small creek, and lots of different plants including some honeysuckle! It’s the little things that really interest them…Preston’s favorites were rocks and fallen acorns
For the party, we tried to stay with the Earth Day theme as much as possible and created these really cute invitations out of brown paper grocery bags.
I decorated them with flowers that I cut out from some colored paper that I had on hand.
For food we did a selection of healthy appetizers with orange slices, melon, vegetable trays, hummus with baguette and organic wheat crackers and I made fresh guacamole and salsa with chips for the grown ups. To make the clean up easy, I did still use paper plates but purchased disposable cups made from recycled materials.
The original plan was to have the party at the park, but of course, it rained! And we had to move the party indoors. Since there were over 20 kids attending plus adults, I opted for a cupcake-cake instead of a traditional birthday cake. Really easy to serve and eat! The flowers went with the Garden party theme, and the pink makes them extra girly for my princess! It was just what she wanted!
For party activities we did face painting and I purchased inexpensive plastic pots, seeds, and soil and the kids each got to plant their own flowers. We bought Marigolds to plant as I was informed by the nice lady at the home and garden center that they are perfect for preschoolers since they sprout within a few days! Each child got to take home his/her flower pot instead of doing loot bags (which I don’t really care for anyway). I always try to put together something for the kids to take home that doesn’t necessarily revolve around candy and stays with the theme of the party!
This is what their little seeds have grown into, and they are so proud!
Even with the rain, and the change of venue, the party was a huge success!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl! I love you so much!
